Ian flies the world

Over the years, there were quite a few journeys which I
almost made. This is a selective list of some of the more
interesting destinations, and clues as to why they didn't take
place. Of course, many other places nearly featured on this
list. I have tried to be as fair as possible and only include
places where I genuinely thought I would go.

Lagos was a city I nearly got to visit on a couple of
occasions, and it could have been quite exciting there. As it
turned out, the company for which I would have done some
consultancy decided to send some of their staff to Great Britain
instead. This happened on two separate occasions. Another time,
we decided not to quote for some work after careful
consideration. One major problem with all work in Nigeria is
that of Foreign exchange, and the question whether anybody will
ever get paid in a useful currency.

Tel Aviv looked promising as a destination, though one
with certain political disadvantages. The courses I had attended
in Paris had an advanced course in Tel Aviv, but I was not able
to attend because it clashed with my honeymoon. Zimbabwe and
Zambia were thus added to the list instead.

Malta might have been fun too, but again the problem was
that the prospective hosts decided to send their staff to Great
Britain instead. Even so, these people do make useful contacts,
and I may follow them up one day anyhow. We had also considered
a routing via Malta with Air Malta for a holiday, but it was
cancelled when my wife became pregnant.

Egypt, you see, is not an ideal place to visit while
pregnant. So our cruise up the River Nile is delayed, as is our
investigation of the Egyptian Pyramids, until our children are
old enough to appreciate it and be safe, or, possibly, until
they have left home.

Jeddah and Dhahran offer the closest I have ever been to
a trip without it actually taking place. The company had
insisted that I paid up front any out-of-pocket expenses and
claimed them back later. This didn't seem reasonable to me on a
trip which would have been around a month in duration, and the
company travel department agreed with me on this. Then, one
afternoon, after my schedule had been worked out, the news came
that my trip was cancelled. I telephoned our travel agent, who
told me that they had at last managed to arrange a float for me.
I thanked him for his effort, and then told him to cancel the
whole thing. He could hardly believe it. Neither could I.

Orlando was another, though I wasn't as close as one of my
colleagues, who had an APEX ticket in his possession before his
trip there was cancelled. I nearly got to Orlando on two
separate occasions. The first time, some computer software
wasn't working, so a new version was sent to us, and if that
hadn't fixed the problem, I would have gone to discuss the
problem further. Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for the
company, the new version did solve it. On the second occasion,
when the team there was being disbanded, but European support
was being continued, and a suggestion was made that I might take
a trip to pick up any information as this would be our last
chance. It was a good idea, but finance for the trip was not
forthcoming. Probably the management realised what their morale
would be like.

Singapore might have been graced with our presence, but
they don't accept, or are rumoured not to accept, pregnant women
into their country. Whether this is true or not I couldn't say
for sure, but we were thereby deterred from routing via
Singapore, a city we would have chosen in preference to Bangkok,
given a free choice.